Love him or hate him, there is one thing that is undeniable about Floyd Mayweather Jr. – he is at the peak of his profession both as an athlete and businessman. You don’t top Forbe’s list of highest paid athletes in the world two of the past three years without having some business acumen. His last mega-fight against Manny Pacquiao made him over $180 million dollars in one night. His next fight against Conor McGregor is set to make him nine-figures in one night yet again. We stopped to ask ourselves, maybe there is a thing or two we could pick up from the man known as “Money May”. If it can’t get us into his tax bracket, maybe it could us to our next.
4. Go Counter-Culture to Create A Brand
Early in his career Mayweather was known as “Pretty Boy Floyd”. His promotion company Top Rank Boxing sought to mold him as the next Sugar Ray Leonard and/or Oscar De La Hoya. The thought process was to take another Olympic medalist and forge him a clean-cut image both Madison Avenue and Middle America could embrace. However Mayweather had other ideas. His goal was to be a boxer for the hip-hop generation, thus “Pretty Boy” became “Money May”. A brash, flashy, in-your-face bad boy boxer that did not hold his tongue and seemingly lived the hip-hop lifestyle. This was never more apparent than in his bout with Oscar De La Hoya. It was the first time the new persona was provided such constant and worldwide exposure. Prior to the bout Mayweather took full advantage of the promotional opportunities. Setting himself apart as the man with the proverbial “black hat” to De La Hoya’s golden boy image. The counter culture character he created was successful in not only promoting the bout, but also creating a star and a brand. People now tune in specifically to see if the bad guy will finally lose.